cursor tracking?

Is there a way to stop my avatar from tracking the cursor? It just doesn't look right when I'm navigating the menu or moving the cursor off the screen and the avatar is looking all over the place, or when I'm walking around and the avatar is looking off to the side. I'd rather have the avatar look straight ahead.

You can change it, it's one of those things you'll have to patch up with each new SL version, though.

In your SL application folder, find character/attentions.xml

Open this file in a text editor, and inside you will find a couple of lines like this:

<param attention="freelook" priority="2.0" timeout="2.0" />

Zero out the priority and timeout like so:

<param attention="freelook" priority="0.0" timeout="0.0" />

Save the file, restart SL. That should be the end of the avatar following the mouse. Your avatar might look a little bot-like that way, it's a personal taste thing. Fiddle with the attentions until you find something you like.

Most AOs will override that feature as well. However, there's another way to stop the cursor-tracking on an ad-hoc basis: Simply alt-click on something. Your avatar will stare at that object instead; or, if you alt-click on your nose, your avatar will look straight ahead. Photographers use this method when a pose ball won't keep one's avatar from looking around.